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Continuing Professional Development: Innovative Practice in a Context of Tumult and Constraint Teacher Education Advancement Network Day Special Educational Needs: Changing Perspectives 13 th January 2012 Christopher Robertson

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Outline I will refer to practice that is based on some of my direct recent experience and that of schools, teachers and local authority services I work with. In doing this I want to highlight the value of collaborative practice. Exemplification will focus on continuing professional development (to avoid overlap with other presenters from the University of Cumbria and the excellent practice they will comment on). I will include some grit in the presentation to reflect the context in which continuing professional development takes place.

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Inclusion: a retrospective We have got on to slippery ice where there is no friction and so in a certain sense the conditions are ideal, but also, just because of that we are unable to walk. We want to walk: so we need friction. Back to the rough ground! Ludwig Wittgenstein

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Inclusion: a radical overhaul? We are like sailors who on the open sea must reconstruct their ship but are never able to start afresh from the bottom. Where a beam is taken away a new one must at once be put there, and for this the rest of the ship is used as support. In this way, by using the old beams and driftwood the ship can be shaped entirely anew, but only by gradual reconstruction. Otto Neurath

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Theory Henri Lefebvre in The Production of Space argues that space [e.g. the space in which schooling takes place] is a social product, or a complex social construction based on values, and the social production of meanings - which affects social practices and perceptions. Lefebvres argument implies the shift of the research perspective from space to processes of its production; the embrace of the multiplicity of spaces that are socially produced and made productive in social practices; and the focus on the contradictory, conflictual, and, ultimately political character of the processes of production of space. [The space in which continuing professional development is produced] The social production of space is commanded by a hegemonic class as a tool to reproduce its dominance.

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Change is in the air and on the ground* Ideological change Inclusive education policy Broader education policy and the concept of autonomous schools Parents as choice makers and in control Front-line services Voluntary and community sector (VCS) involvement, leading or selling... Economic change * Reference here is to change in England

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This word cloud offers a visual representation of the main themes of the SEN Green Paper. The larger the word, the more heavily it features Inclusive education?

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Living in interesting times Fast forward... 6 months, 3 years navigating... without a map

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Exemplification 1: Government funded SENCO CPD Partnerships that are genuinely collaborative involving local authority (LA) advisory service personnel, the university and schools: planning, teaching and learning, monitoring, reviewing and evaluating (micro, meso, macro perspectives) Face-to-face teaching and learning (alongside blended/online activities) with time and space to work with - and learn from - peers in the same professional role (consistently well evaluated), acknowledging professional isolation and context specific concerns (e.g. no time to carry out SENCO duties) Working with joint cohorts from neighbouring LAs (with different policy and organisation of provision)

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Government funded SENCO CPD (continued..) Reflecting on and critically appraising policy and practice, in relation to, for example the over identification of needs narrative the end of individual education plans the deployment of teaching assistants whispers loosely based on research (cascade / dissemination) Achievement for All as a good value project purchase or commonsense approach Reflective writing as a counterbalance to an outcomes focused and potentially prescriptive programme of study (assignment) Development projects* that are personally meaningful, professionally relevant and shared with peers (assignment) *need to know > readiness > problem centred > with a balance of internal and external motivators

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Exemplification 2: Networked learning and support The SENCO-Forum e-discussion group providing rapid response help and advice in real time and the real world (I need to do a presentation at the staff meeting on Thursday about provision management help wanted; I am on an interview panel to appoint new TAs what questions should I ask?; Im a SENCO in a primary school with 560 pupils. How much non-contact time am I entitled to?) Local SENCO networks that use bottom up rather than top down agendas and meeting/activities that draw on practitioner experience and knowledge rather than external expertise (this has a place) Relevance or otherwise of higher education involvement?

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Exemplification 3: Schools and support services Cinderella is not invited to the ball! Struggling to manage budget cuts (are they valued front line services?) Need to trade services in a system that is opened up to competition with independent providers, special schools (including academies and free schools) Need to work in competition with other services a school may wish to buy, for example educational psychology and advisory services including those run by voluntary and community sector organisations Relevance or otherwise of higher education Involvement? ,

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A clear and effective framework for outreach, in-reach and support In addition to any frameworks already in use it might be worth reviewing and adapting Quality Standards for Services (DCSF, 2008) The Quality Standards cover 16 dimensions of support and outreach organised under 2 headings: o outcomes standards o service management and delivery standards. The standards are designed to be used as suggested markers against which services provided can be evaluated

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A SENCO (Inclusion Lead) perspective SENCOs may, when using the Quality Standards: want to consider whether their school or setting has sufficient access to services want to identify how service support and guidance has contributed to improved outcomes, or how they think it might do so in the future wish to reflect on the nature of support, whether they think is sufficient, and how it impacts on individual learners challenge and support services to work in ways that they consider to be most effective in classroom contexts wish to contribute to discussions about how to disseminate advice to teachers and teaching assistants and to collate feedback for services on collaborative support practice wish to be included in a self-evaluation feedback cycle and to share their views on specific aspects of it have important things to say about capacity building and how this needs to be balanced against work overload and the over delegation of responsibilities.

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Reflection The examples outlined are drawn from a context where there is a strong compliance and technical orientation, a high level of prescription and overload and this needs to be worked with rather than ignored, but there may also be a need for supportive subversion (e.g. ensuring/enabling new to role SENCOs to achieve required outcomes in a professional training programme). The examples may also raise issues about the binary distinction between teaching and research and whether we need to make space for activity between these in universities.

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Returning to teachers... Guy Claxtons emphasis on slower ways of learning seems to me to be particularly important and involves: immersion (just looking, messing about); imagination (mental rehearsal); intuition (letting your mind go soft and allowing things to come to you); as well the more familiar intellect are at the heart of this approach.

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